Sunday, October 5, 2014

A Letter to Ferran from Godfried Toussaint

Ferran, you have left us so unexpectedly and so soon at the height of your career. I remember when you came to spend some time with me at McGill University more than twenty-two years ago, filled with passion for learning computational geometry. Then you invited me to Barcelona where later I spent part of my sabbatical working with you on some new problems you had posed concerning visibility and aperture-angle optimization problems. You carried me all over the city on your little motor scooter, introduced me to horchata, tapas, and Gran Feudo. Through you I discovered Barcelona. You were always the perfect host, an eternal optimist, a marvelous conversationalist, and a gracious friend. I was fortunate that you were able to attend so many of my computational geometry workshops at the Bellairs Research Institute of McGill University in Barbados. I will always remember the beauty and elegance of the many problems you posed there. Your energy and dedication were great contributors to the success of those workshops. We will dearly miss your presence and those beautiful open problems.